5/04/2010

Goldman Employees Donate Houses in the Hamptons

http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/05/04/jail-time-for-wall-st-crime-senate-weighs-deterrents/#preview
Cyrus Sanati writes today about the Senate considering Jail time for Goldman Sachs employees.

In watching the Senate hearings, I believe Senators did not ask the right questions.They failed to deeply understand the nature of the business. Banking/finance/and secondary has anachronisms that perhaps hide from general public language to abbreviate models. I should have mailed some cue cards to Arlen Specter.

If a law is passed that a broker dealer has to disclose all trading positions (short or long) would it stop an investor from touching what they believe is gold? Maybe not.

If the accounting is rigged or there is fraud, then yes punishment is in order.
Does jail time deter anyone? Violent crimes occur in death penalty states.

These high achieving personalities are about success measured in dollars. Huge financial penalties might be a bigger deterrent. Make the fines usurious, bankruptcy remote and put them on the chain gang?
I'm not Mike Whitney and I love Prada shoes, so I hope the reform is orderly.

BP what about the men that Died?

Tony nice press release but a few things already don't add up. Oil business is dangerous work. Little has been mentioned about the men who perished on the rig. Little has been released about why the line has so
many deferred maintenance cracks and holes. Some of your command center decisions lack leadership.

I don't know it you have children, but allow me to share a story. When mine were younger we used an imaginary person to blame when things went missing, or tops of flowers were batted off with a lacrosse stick .I would put the guilt on "Alfredo Sauce". I blamed a naughty "Alfredo" for eating all the oatmeal cookies again, and they would laugh. "Alfredo" has been a running joke of not owning up, of failing to fully raise your hand and say "Forgive me, I will fix it."

My children like that white cream cheese sauce, but it's really not good for anyone.  In my mind it's indirectly linked today to the oil slick - the deadly murk of poison cholesterol coming to our Gulf shores.

Fifteen men died on the Texas rig, I know that's in the past but this time do us a favor, accept the big mistake. Tony Hayward are at the helm of the ship, you are a scientist, you measured the risks verses the profits and failed to investigate before leasing an unsafe situation.

“What I learned was


that we’d become far

too introspective at the

top. In particular, we

weren’t listening to the

operating people on

safety and reliability" 
Tony Hayward 2008 



“People who work for BP care deeply about the company; they have green and yellow blood in their veins,” ... “and I think that’s because this is a company that tries to do the right thing.” Tony Hayward

Please don't rely on America to foot the bill for your error we don't want to nickname you Alfredo Sauce.
Get the British fleet over here and get on it man. Say something inspiring to rally volunteers on the Gulf shores, there must be some better solutions than spraying chemicals on the surface of choppy surf and booms like paper boats. Don't we have some science to cap the source?

5/03/2010

Thanks BP

Chemical dispersants sprayed on the surface by helicopter are supposed to break the oil 5000 feet down? That makes as much sense as using a can of spray paint to stop a hurricane.
US Coast Guard Petty Officer B. B.confirms they are using Corexit manufactured by Nalco. They are also testing another chemical (unknown name)
Corexit is dispersed by sprayer in100% solution. It is like a heavy detergent that changes the oil to heavier droplets, which will fall to the bottom of the sea floor.
It also counters or breaks up the mousse like oil foam at the shore. Chemicals like this were used in the Exxon Valdez spill. Active ingredient butoxethanol is used as a solvent in oil paint. It can cause headaches, vomiting and reproductive problems at high doses.

So to summarize my view of BP’s plan:
Add toxic chemicals to make the oil sink and be out of minds of America.


So when the oil and poisons sink to the bottom, everything on the bottom carries poison.
Good thing I can't eat shellfish, but what about the rest of the food chain?


http://www.bowdoin.edu/faculty/d/dpage/html/oilspill.shtml